Home rebuilding process to go into high gear in 2011

By John Aguilar Camera Staff Writer

Posted:
12/31/2010 01:00:05 PM MST

Updated:
12/31/2010 01:01:54 PM MST

A slurry bomber drops fire retardant along one of the many ridges involved in the Fourmile Fire on Sept. 6. In the end, the fire claimed 169 structures and burned 6,200 acres, becoming Colorado s most destructive wildfire ever in terms of property loss.
(
PATRICK KELLEY
)

Camera's top 10 local news stories of 2010

10. Stephanie Rochester accused in baby's death

9. Homeless camping fight

8. Seth Brigham's arrest

7. 2010 election

6. Boulder Stove & Flooring shootings

5. Regulating medical marijuana

4. CU football coaching change

3. Xcel franchise expires

2. CU joins the Pac-12

1. Fourmile Fire

Readers' picks

10. Regulating medical marijuana

9. 2010 election

8. Dog-taper convicted

7. Three die as planes collide

6. Stephanie Rochester accused in baby's death

5. Dome Fire

4. Boulder Stove & Flooring shootings

3. CU joins the Pac-12

2. CU football coaching change

1. Fourmile Fire

Editor's note: The Camera is counting down the Top 10 local news stories of 2010 as chosen by newsroom staff. Readers also selected their top picks by voting at dailycamera.com.

It came as a rushing wall of flame, devouring homes and torching cars. It departed as a singed memory, its gray smoke lingering over a blackened moonscape of ash and scorched dreams.

The Fourmile Fire took over the foothills west of Boulder in early September, testing hundreds of fire crews and multiple bomber pilots for days as they tried to tame the conflagration and save what homes they could.

In the end, the fire claimed 169 structures and burned 6,200 acres, becoming Colorado's most destructive wildfire in terms of property loss.

"Folks are still coming to grips with the emotional fallout from the fire," said Bret Gibson, chief of the Four Mile Fire Protection District.

Investigators determined that the blaze started Sept. 6 when strong winds sparked embers from a still smoldering fire pit that was located on a volunteer firefighter's property in Emerson Gulch. The good news was that no one died in the fire and the historic town of Gold Hill was saved.

The fire chief said there are major obstacles his neighbors must overcome before putting their homes back together again.

"The rebuilding itself, the insurance, the building permits -- on a normal day, these things are daunting," Gibson said. "But in a case like this, they're an assault."

Boulder County has made strides toward making the process easier for evacuees. In October, the county commissioners voted to relax land use codes for Fourmile Fire victims who want to rebuild.

The code changes will give people whose houses burned in the blaze up to two years to apply for permits to rebuild essentially the same house they lost, in the same location, without going through the county's rigorous site plan review process.

So far, the county has issued only three permits for house reconstruction in the burn zone.

But Gibson said most people he knows who lost a house in the fire have vowed to rebuild and reclaim the hardy mountain lifestyles they once knew.

"I've heard from a lot of folks that they want to get back and they want to get back soon," he said.

Some of those feelings may have abated momentarily when the Dome Fire erupted in the same foothills seven weeks later -- only this time closer to the city. The 85-acre fire that began Oct. 29 didn't burn any homes, but it did prompt evacuation orders that stretched all the way into neighborhoods on the west side of Boulder.

Gibson said other effects of Fourmile Fire might not become evident for months or years. He is concerned about spring rains and melting snow and what it could mean for gulches and hillsides that are no longer anchored by vegetation and tree roots. He said the four fire districts in the burn zone and officials from the county and state are in discussions on how to best mitigate the threat of flooding and erosion.

The chief said he expects firefighting resources in the foothills to be back to pre-Fourmile Fire levels by early summer, after the fire station that was burned down in Salina is rebuilt and a fire truck that was decimated in the fire is replaced.

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